Oil: All Tapped Out?

It's a piece by the New York Times, but when both Slublog and Megan recommend it, it's probably worth reading.

I'm only halfway through (it's a ten pager) and while the author seems somewhat pessimistic on world petroleum supplies, the piece seems pretty sober overall. And sobering.

On the other hand, Instapundit links this debunking of the article by the author of Freakonomics.

He notes the piece states that high oil prices aren't necessarily good for the Saudis -- if oil gets too costly, a recession falls, and demand for oil decreases after a brief windfall period. Stephen J. Dubner notes:

Oops, there goes the whole peak oil argument. When the price rises, demand falls, and oil prices slide. What happened to the "end of the world as we know it?" Now we are back to $10 a barrel oil. Without realizing it, the author just invoked basic economics to invalidate the entire premise of the article!

The Washington Times reports that the drumbeat for raising fuel efficiency is getting louder in DC.

I admit: I know absolutely nothing about this topic. I hear some experts talking panic in the streets -- food riots, atonal music! -- and other saying we'll have more than enough oil until we have fusion and replicators.

So I don't know. I would say that while I'm not a fan of government regulation generally, this does seem to be a national security issue.

posted by Ace at 01:49 AM

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